How KFC Trinidad and Tobago Leverages Braze Canvas to Drive More Revenue

They turned to Braze in order to better reach customers at key stages in the lifecycle. Additionally, as a small team, they needed tools that would allow them to do more with less, especially to keep up with expectations for a globally-recognized brand. Now, they’ve been able to increase customer LTV by 21X (compared to users who have not received any messaging) with a robust strategy that relies on deep user segmentation and data-driven iteration. Their customer engagement strategy drives more sales, but it also increases their brand’s presence and visibility in the market.

Leveraging Data to Learn More About Customers

KFC Trinidad and Tobago leverages Braze to address several specific challenges across their activation, monetization, and retention KPIs. To better accomplish these goals, KFC set out to revamp a series of customer journeys aimed at specific stages of the customer lifecycle. The new customers entered the fold from different channels and with various relationships to the KFC brand, so they needed to tailor messages accordingly.

In order to achieve their activation goals, KFC decided to revamp its onboarding series with a better understanding of their customers’ needs and preferences. With a more engaging and informative introduction to their brand, they could start fostering long-term loyalty from the first interaction. They also believed they could accelerate the customer lifecycle and increase the frequency of purchases by reducing the time between first and second purchases. Lastly, they knew that they could leverage Braze to A/B test and find the right messaging frequency and targeting approach, which would help retain more customers and increase LTV.

Using Braze Canvas, our visual development environment which marketers can use as a no-code journey orchestration tool, they created a mobile welcome series that engaged users across email, in-app messages (IAM), and push notifications. The journey begins with an IAM asking users to sign up to earn rewards, before sending promotions for online exclusives such as the “Online Bucket” deal. Additionally, if the user doesn’t make a purchase within three days, they are sent a push notification with a promo code for free fries. The mobile welcome Canvas targets users with five sessions or less.

To increase the effectiveness of these messages, KFC uses Braze Experiment Path to determine which copy best entices users to start using the app, as well as Decision Split in order to segment messages by those who have email enabled. If a user is opted into email, they will receive an email for the “Online Bucket” deal, while those who have push enabled will receive a push with a deep link to the deal. They also use Braze Action Paths—which allows markets to create, define, and trigger user experiences based on the actions customers take during an assigned time period—to strategically evaluate whether users made a purchase.

In addition to the mobile welcome series, there is a one-step Canvas designed to get anonymous users to register for an account and/or subscribe to email. The in-app message targets users without an external ID, who are not on the iOS or Android app. In October, almost 13% of users who received the message registered for an account and/or subscribed to email—all without the need for a special discount offer!

To improve monetization and retention efforts, KFC Trinidad and Tobago wanted to upgrade “Terrific Tuesday” Canvas, which is designed to drive sales by offering enticing promotions and deals. The promotion was already very lucrative, and KFC saw several opportunities to increase that success. They started by outlining their goals, which were:

• To increase awareness of Terrific Tuesday offers
• To grow online sales for Terrific Tuesday
• To use FOMO messaging to drive sales
• To increase average order value

The new and improved “Terrific Tuesday '' engages users across email, IAM, and push notifications with an amazing discount offer each Tuesday—50% more chicken for the same price if they order in the app (applicable to certain combos only.) Using Braze Intelligent Channel, the promotion is sent via the channel users are more likely to engage with. They target all iOS and Android app users who have not redeemed the offer within the last two weeks.Additionally, they revamped a separate “Terrific Tuesday” campaign, and alternated between the two. With these automated, evergreen campaigns, KFC Trinidad and Tobago can engage users with personalized content without additional time or effort.

In order to ensure their messaging strategy drives the most value, KFC Trinidad and Tobago has a weekly sync with their Braze Customer Success Manager (CSM). During these weekly syncs and with the guidance of their CSM, the KFC Trinidad and Tobago team improves and iterates on a Canvas to help tackle different metrics and goals and discuss testing strategies to improve conversions and engagement based on recent insights. Specifically, KFC utilizes the Canvas feature “Save as Draft” as any modifications require approval. Later, their agency partner—Braze Alloys solutions partner Cognizant—codes the email. Cognizant has also identified and created more effective custom events, added deep links in their app, and enabled in-app messages for both their iOS and Android apps.

KFC Trinidad and Tobago’s Results: More Revenue

With these more engaging and personalized campaigns, KFC Trinidad and Tobago was able to drive 10% of their average daily revenue in September and October with their mobile welcome series alone. Since its launch, users who converted from the welcome series show an increase in session frequency by 384%, with an average lifetime revenue 9.37X greater than the baseline. Additionally, from June to October 2023, new users who were served any of the welcome series or anonymous users Canvases had a 2.46 day average time-to-first purchase.

With their most popular weekly monetization canvas, they were able to consistently produce over 20% of the weekly purchases thanks to their “Terrific Tuesday” promotion, as well as drive session starts by over 11% compared to the control group. On average, session counts are the highest on Tuesdays for KFC Trinidad and Tobago in large part influenced by this weekly promotion, and it is the second-highest profitable day of the week with over 20% of the week's purchases being made on a Tuesday. Additionally, users who have received a message from this Canvas on average show a LTV increase of 5.31X more than the baseline.

Key Takeaways

1. Use data to understand customers and act on those insights. Once you know who your customers are and what they want, you can create messages that resonate—and drive revenue.
2. Target and tailor campaigns to specific stages of the lifecycle. By speaking to customers where they are, you can increase loyalty and decrease churn.

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